Chapter 1 South of France, September 2019 There was something there. He peered closely at the pixelated image on the screen and pressed the pause button. The frame was blurred and ill-defined even though the light was good, and the drone had the latest high definition camera. He frowned, rewound the footage and pressed slow play. Something…

Retirement comes as a bit of shock to most people and many people founder in the doldrums of loss of pupose and direction. I decided at 66 years old that I needed a challenge to reinvigorate my life and restore my self-esteem. I stupidly decide to cross Greenland on skis; a five week journey of 600Km pulling an 85Kg sledge over the world’s second largest ice cap in temperatures down to -40 degC

I desperately need a job to help offset the cost of my pilot training Excerpt from my book — “Dancing the skies and falling with style.” I scraped through my A Levels and I had to decide my future. I had narrowed it down to Medical school at Westminster College or Pilot training at Hamble. I could imagine myself as an eminent…

‘ Electric Ed’ was an eccentric BOAC Flight Engineer on VC10’s. I was a First Officer and flew with him to Singapore in 1971 Extract from my book — “Dancing the skies and falling with style.” ‘Electric Ed’ bought some expensive tropical fish in Singapore and connected their little glass tank to the aircrew oxygen system for the long flight to Bahrain. …

To alleviate the boredom on long-haul flights on the Beach Fleet we played word games on the Passenger Address. Extract from my book — “Dancing the skies and falling with style.” We sometimes played a game on the PA. The cabin crew gave us a word which we had to include at some point in our passenger address. If we didn’t include…

The terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York changed aviation for ever. Security was tightened, baggage was screened, and thorough searches caused frustration and long delays. Passengers were advised to check in three hours before departure. It was the death knell for the notion that flying was romantic. …

In the late 1960’s flight simulators were in their infancy and didn’t accurately represent the flight characteristics of actual aircraft. Extreme manoeuvres and emergency procedures required for pilot certification were practiced in a real aircraft which was flown far from densely populated areas. BOAC based a 4-engine, 190 seat VC10…

Or how I failed miserably at my first attempt in the late 1960's. — In the late 1960’s I was a naive 18 year-old boy at a flying college in the south of England. My arch rival, and friend, was an Irish lad called Keir. We invited one of the waitresses with an unfortunate nickname of ‘Knocky-knees’, to join us at the local pub…

- -Trinidad Guardian January 16th 1990 — Late at night in 1990 I was Captain of a Boeing 747 preparing for a flight from Piarco in Trinidad to Antigua. Extract from my book — “Dancing the skies and falling with style.” Available on Amazon and www.calvinshields.com/book At 10pm we ran through the pre-flight checks for our return to Antigua. Faint flashes of lightning illuminated a line of thunderstorms in…